[Notes for the run of June 28, 2000.]

We started with much rehashing of the email discussion that had been going
on being Rhori and Paris, regarding the differences and similarities between
their Orders, and whether Paris's order gets its power from Death, and other
such stuff.  It's not entirely clear at what point the discussion became
wider than those two.  I didn't try to capture most of it, but had to
include one summarisation from Anton:  "Fortitude is how we resist the
excesses of Nature.  Justice is how we resist the excesses of Death, and of
Man."

We reappear within the stockade at the top of the dungeon, much to the
surprise of the guards there.  We've been gone a day and a half.  (It was
only half a day from our viewpoint, except, we suspect, for Mia's baby.)

The Emerald Baron wants a report.  Paris advises there are things that
should not get around.  He suggests restricting the conversation to himself
and his most trusted lieutenant, his son.  Rhori argues against even that
much.  Rhori and Paris argue about how much to tell, with the Baron
listening to the argument with extraordinary patience.  Rhori eventually
starts to leave, but the Baron tells him to wait until he's done asking
questions, and Rhori grudgingly obeys.

Paris offers to describe the creatures we saw.  She also confirms finding
the Devil, and that he wants to be released.  The Baron asks whether a
particular tool is required for that.  We say that he was chained, and he
seemed to think any weapon might be able to break the chains, except Paris's
sword.  She says that's because her sword is of the same magic as the
chains.  We explain that they are both "white church" magic.  The Baron
wonders why the sword wouldn't be _more_ effective against its own type of
magic, but we know that such restrictions are common among magical effects.

Anton describes how the Devil tried to sway each of us to set him free.  One
thing that we do _not_ report is that the path down forms a pentagram.

The Baron asks where the Dark creatures are being generated.  We don't know,
though we say there is a connection to Tarot in there.

We talk about the group of Fell in the area, and Anton suggests that we try
to stop them before they can try to sneak into the dungeon.  Rhori repeats
the report he gave two days ago, about finding unusually deep tracks with no
scent.

We summarise for the Baron, "If anything, we feel your purpose in keeping
these things penned up is more vital than we had imagined."  "A pity," he
replies.  "There's many other things I would like to do with these troops."

After leaving the Baron, Rhori asks Anton whether there might be something
about the pentagrammic path that could be holding the Devil within, and
could it be extended to keep the other things within.  (We don't know if the
pentagram at the top where the scroll took us is involved in holding the
Devil.  It is not magical, but is of focus quality.)  Anton doesn't know if
it can be extended, but advises against messing with the magic that forms
the dungeon.

Rhori tells someone where we'll be looking for the Fell, so they can arrange
to have someone in the area for us to report to in case we don't have time
to come back to Dungeon.  He also emphasises that we're just trying to find
the Fell and figure out what they're up to; we might kill them, but that's
not definite.

We also wonder what it takes to get to the Moon.  We observe that we're a
couple days away from a full moon.  We won't have a flying boat by then,
though.  Anton asks Jarvon about getting to the moon; he says a boat
wouldn't go that high anyway, but an astral current might take us there.

Off we go in search of Fell.  That night, the first two watches hear wolves
howling.  We had previously noted, and Pyotr again points out, that there is
a wolf on the Moon's card.

Hobbes finds where the wolves ran through, and tracks them to the remains of
a deer they chased down.  It all looks ordinary, so we go back to looking
for the Fell group.  Eventually Rhori finds the tracks he'd found before,
but finds no new ones by the end of the day.  He thinks they're headed into
the hills, so we move camp in that direction.

That night, the howls seem further away.  Rhori also hears some further into
the hills.  That makes sense; there should be wolves all through this area.
Indeed, Rhori finds it a bit odd that there aren't any wolves howling more
nearby.  The next night will be the start of the full moon.

The next day Rhori picks up more Fell tracks, again with no scent, leading
up a ravine.  The trail ends at a cliff face with a man-sized crack in it.
He comes back to camp and tells us about that, and also remarks on the
surprising lack of wolves nearby.  Paris recalls that Kivan, the duBois
forester, said the wolves seemed to clear out (or stay quiet) when there
were orcs in the area.

We all head back to the ravine.  Rhori suggests that the newly stealthy
Paris go with Hobbes and Calais this time.  Paris is surprised, but agrees.
They sneak into the ravine, with Calais carrying a torch for light.  Paris
spots a place where an orc and wolf footprint are overlaid.  Following the
tracks, they find a room about ten hexes wide and twenty deep, with a crack
in the far wall.  There is an impressive array of statues of orcs and
wolves: twenty orcs, arranged neatly in four ranks of five, each rank
flanked by a wolf at either end.

Calais suggests Paris check whether the tracks lead to the statues or past
them, but she can't find anything on the stone floor.  He doesn't find any
signs of traps, either.

Paris signals to Hobbes to have Rhori bring the others up this far.  Anton
checks for magic and finds it full of earth magic.  Even the crack might be
being held open by magic.  Drawing her sword might be a very bad idea.

Rhori suggests that Anton slip in invisibly and put a rope around one
statue, so Rhori can haul it out.  Calais constructs a suitable rope
harness, and Anton slips it over a statue.  Rhori takes the torch from
Calais, and Paris tugs on the rope.  She pulls gently; the statue wobbles a
bit but doesn't quite fall.  She again suggests just continuing through the
room, but Rhori says he wants to know what we're dealing with first.

She pulls harder, and the statue topples with a crash.  She starts dragging
it across the floor.  Rhori has her pause so they can listen for a reaction
to the crash, but they don't hear anything.  They drag it out of the room,
but to get it through the twisting corridor Paris has to pick it up.  She's
barely able to wrestle it outside.  As she does so, Hobbes tells Rhori he
has a bad feeling.  Rhori has Paris stop, but Hobbes still feels something's
wrong.  Rhori says aloud that something bad is happening, and Anton starts
to cast Magic Sight.

In the distance, Rhori hears a scream of terror from deeper in the mountain.
It sounds like an orc screaming in terror and suddenly being silenced.

Paris leaves the statue standing up near the exit of the ravine, and draws
her non-magical sword to check for evil.  She feels there's something evil
about the crack, but it's not the statue.  Nevertheless, just at that
moment, the statue starts to move, breaking the ropes.  Behind it we can see
more of the orc statues approaching.